2006 FESPIC Games

IX FESPIC Games

Host city	Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Motto	The Pursuit of Equality in Sports and Life
Nations participating	46
Athletes participating	3641
Events	542 in 19 sports
Opening ceremony	25 November
Closing ceremony	1 December
Officially opened by	Abdullah Ahmad Badawi Prime Minister of Malaysia[1]
Athlete's Oath	Lee Seng Chow
Torch lighter	Razali Jaafar, Hisham Khaironi, Choo Kam Chan and David Wang
Main venue	KLFA Stadium[2]
Website	2006 FESPIC Games
← Busan 2002 Guangzhou 2010 →

The 2006 FESPIC Games, officially known as the 9th and Final FESPIC Games, was an Asia-Pacific disabled multi-sport event held^[3] in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, from 25 November to 1 December 2006.^[4][5]

It was the first and last time Malaysia hosted the games. Malaysia is the eighth and the last FESPIC organisation member to host the FESPIC games after Japan, Australia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, China, Thailand, and South Korea. Around 3,641 athletes from 46 nations competed at the games which featured 19 sports. The games was opened by Prime Minister of Malaysia, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi at the KLFA stadium.

The final medal tally was led by China, followed by Thailand, South Korea, and host Malaysia. Several games and national records were broken during the games. The games were deemed generally successful with the rising standard of disabled sports competition among the Pacific and Asian nations for other active sports tournaments. With the games concluded, the FESPIC organisation was officially defunct, and since then, the Asian Countries participate at the Asian Para Games held after every Asian Games, beginning with the 2010 Asian Para Games in Guangzhou, China.^[6]

Host city[]

Four cities: Doha, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong and New Delhi submitted their bid for the games by 30 June 2000.^[7] Prior to the voting, a 4-member Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) evaluation committee headed by then vice-president of the association Muhammad Latif Butt inspected Doha on 13 and 14 July 2000,^[8] New Delhi on 15 and 16 July 2000,^[9] Kuala Lumpur on 17 and 18 July 2000,^[10][11] and Hong Kong on 19 and 20 July 2000.^[12]

On 12 November 2000, voting for the 2006 venue took place during the 19th Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) General Assembly held in Busan, South Korea.^[13] The voting involved the 41 members of the Olympic Council of Asia and consisted of three rounds, each round eliminating one of the bidding cities.^[14][15] After the first round, New Delhi was eliminated, with only two votes. The second round of voting, with three remaining candidates, gave Doha as the result.^[16][17]

During this bid process Malaysia and Hong Kong was proposed to host the FESPIC Games if win the bid for the Asian Games. But this did not happen, as Qatar was not a member of the Asia-Pacific region of the IPC, the holding of the FESPIC Games in the country has become unviable (the IPC until 2004 had six regions and the country was part of the Middle East and North Africa Region) and unlike the three previous editions, the FESPIC Games would no longer be held in the country that hosted the Asian Games. This situation motivated FESPIC to open a second election process, in which Hong Kong and Malaysia recycled their projects and a third interested appeared, which was New Zealand.Subsequently, both New Zealand and Hong Kong voluntarily withdrawn your bids and thus, Kuala Lumpur was hailed as the games host city.With the structural changes implemented by the IPC in 2004, this was the last edition of the Games held in this format, since after the opening ceremony, FESPIC was dissolved and its members were absorbed by 3 areas of the IPC (Asia, Europe and Oceania). Thus, the subsequent edition of the Games would be held in Guangzhou in the People's Republic of China and they would be called Asian Para Games and the recount would start from there.^[18]

Development and preparation[]

The KL'06 9th FESPIC Games Organising Committee was formed to oversee the staging of the games.^[19]

Venues[]

The 2006 FESPIC Games used a mix of new, existing and temporary venues. Most venues were public-sporting facilities which will revert to public use after the games. No major retrofitting work were done in most venues as most had been used to host major multi-sporting events such as the 1998 Commonwealth Games, 2001 Southeast Asian Games and the 2001 ASEAN Para Games.

At the centrepiece of the activities was the National Sports Complex. Incorporating the 87,411-seat world-famous Bukit Jalil National Stadium, it hosted most of the events.

Due to the small budget,the games village was not built. Instead, a "village in the city" concept saw athletes and officials housed in 13 hotels across the Klang Valley.These hotels were close to the competition venues,with this decision it was expected with the resources that would hypothetically be used to build a village to be used for other purposes during the Games.

The Final FESPIC Games had 20 venues for the games. 11 in Kuala Lumpur, 7 in Selangor and two stand-alone venues in Putrajaya and Negeri Sembilan respectively.^[20]

Marketing[]

Logo[]

"Ujang" and "Che Mek", the mousedeers, the official mascots of the games.

The 2006 FESPIC Games logo is a heart-shape image which represents the spirit, passion and tradition of the FESPIC Games. The initial KL in the logo, represents Kuala Lumpur, the capital city of Malaysia as the venue of the Games, and the '06 represents to the year 2006.^[21]

Mascot[]

The official mascot of the 2006 FESPIC Games is a pair of mousedeer named "Ujang", the male one and its female counterpart, "Cek Mek". The adoption of mousedeer as the games' mascot is to represent the courage of the Paralympic athletes in overcoming challenges and the odds. The names of the mascots, Ujang and Che Mek, are common nicknames for local Malay youths.^[22]

The games[]

Opening ceremony[]

The opening ceremony was held on 25 November 2006 at the KLFA Stadium. The ceremony begins with the marching of the Malaysian Armed Forces along with the mascots of the games. This was followed by the firework display and the marching of the contingents of the participating nations. Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, then Prime minister of Malaysia, declared the games opened. Lee Seng Chow, the blind discus throw athlete then take the oath on behalf of the athletes. Finally the torch was lit by four Malaysian paralympic athletes, Razali Jaafar, Hisham Khaironi, Choo Kam Chan and David Wang.^[23]

Closing ceremony[]

The closing ceremony was held on 1 December 2006 at the KLFA Stadium.^[24]

Participating nations[]

Sports[]

Medal table[]

A total of 1476 medals, comprising 542 Gold medals, 476 Silver medals, 458 Bronze medals were awarded to athletes. The host Malaysia's performance was their best ever yet and was placed fourth overall amongst participating nations.^[25]

  *   Host nation (Malaysia)

2006 FESPIC Games medal table

Rank	NPC	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	China (CHN)	199	72	36	307
2	Thailand (THA)	61	43	47	151
3	South Korea (KOR)	58	42	43	143
4	Malaysia (MAS)*	44	59	71	174
5	Iran (IRI)	36	43	26	105
6	Japan (JPN)	28	33	38	99
7	Hong Kong (HKG)	25	30	23	78
8	Chinese Taipei	18	29	22	69
9	Australia (AUS)	15	17	23	55
10	Vietnam (VIE)	9	27	32	68
11	Singapore (SIN)	7	5	5	17
12	India (IND)	5	8	19	32
13	Myanmar	5	2	4	11
14	Iraq (IRQ)	4	5	2	11
15	Indonesia (INA)	3	8	10	21
16	Wallis et Futuna (WLF)	3	0	2	5
17	Jordan (JOR)	3	0	0	3
18	Sri Lanka (SRI)	2	15	10	27
19	Philippines (PHI)	2	4	8	14
20	New Caledonia (NCL)	2	4	3	9
21	United Arab Emirates (UAE)	2	3	1	6
22	Bahrain (BHR)	2	3	0	5
23	Fiji (FIJ)	2	0	5	7
24	Pakistan (PAK)	1	5	3	9
25	Kazakhstan (KAZ)	1	4	2	7
26	Turkmenistan (TKM)	1	4	1	6
27	Macau (MAC)	1	3	4	8
28	Kuwait (KUW)	1	2	8	11
29	Qatar (QAT)	1	0	2	3
30	Kiribati (KIR)	1	0	0	1
31	New Zealand (NZL)	0	3	2	5
32	Mongolia (MGL)	0	1	3	4
33	Bhutan (BHU)	0	1	1	2
34	Uzbekistan (UZB)	0	1	0	1
35	Brunei (BRU)	0	0	1	1
	East Timor (TLS)	0	0	1	1
Totals (36 NPCs)		542	476	458	1476

References[]

External links[]

• 2006 FESPIC Games - Official Website (in English)